shogunboy

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Man, my computer for the last two weeks have been crashing like an emo. I mean, when I play GTA: San Adreas, in 20 minutes, I get a BSOD with a stop error. When I put hardware acceleration to full, in a half an hour, I get a BSOD with a similar error. Believe me, I got three kinds of errors, and some were from different time. I believe the problem either came from the either the PSU, new 512 mb of ram, old 512, CPU, system board, or the graphic card. I'll try to post the error as best as I can. So, is there a solution to this?

Error Message: STOP 0x000000EA THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER (Q293078) This is one of them, but there another one with KMODE that I can't seem to remember. Also, sometimes, after it tries to recover from a serious error, the computer shuts down during the bootup before I can choose which XP version I can choose.

Also, I hate to say this, but I'm not using a legit windows copy sp1, but I have updated to sp2.
 

pscowboy

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That feels like your cpu may be overheating after strong usage.

Check the temperatures in the BIOS.

If you're comfortable inside your box, check that all your fans are running - front, back, cpu cooler, & power supply. Get rid of dust.

Check the heat transfer of cpu to cooler. If it's paste, clean off old & apply thin, but even, coat of Arctic Silver paste.
 

shogunboy

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O shoot, I was afraid of that would happen one day, but tell me, what wipe do I use to apply the thermal paste your talking about?

I am saying 87c is bad, and I just screwed myself. Also, my brother going to repair this, and the fans are working. More likely it is the paste issue, but dust could also happen.
 

pscowboy

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If no pad, clean with isopropyl alcohol using a lint-free cloth (or a coffee maker filter).

I'm not a big fan of pads, so, when I suspect cpu overheating, I remove the pad (if there is one) and apply the thermal grease.

If there's a pad attached to the cooler, you use a combination of Goof-Off (let it penetrate awhile) (or straight xylene) and a plastic (NOT METAL) scraper of some kind. Follow up with isopropyl alcohol.

Be especially careful not to get fingerprints on either surface, nor should you spread out the paste with your finger. The sweat & oils on a finger will have a negative affect.

Dab a bunch of dots equally over one surface and then smooth it out to an even thin coating using a credit card. Clean up any excess around the edges.

When first applying the cooler, twist it back and forth over the cpu a couple of times before securing.

Make sure you get the paste, not the adhesive.
 

shogunboy

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More likely that my brother is going to get a new heatsink with thermal paste on the bottom part of the heatsink. But could this solve my problem? Right now, when I cold boot my computer, the range is 21 to 40C.
 

pscowboy

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Then you've confirmed that the cpu is overheating. Optimally, you don't want it above 55c.

I would stop using the comp until you get the cooler fixed.
 

shogunboy

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It turns out to be dust that was blocking the gills of my heatsink. Thank you for the future advise, in case the next time that it isn't dust issue.